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My teacher made it very clear. She was leaving the room. We were to work on our assignments and should not speak a word while she was gone.

Knowing my penchant for jabbering—reflected in the “Stacey talks too much” that often appeared on my grade-school report cards—my teacher looked right at me.

“Don’t talk,” she said as she headed out the door.

I tried hard to do my work, but with the teacher gone, the impulse to talk was much bigger than my third-grade body could contain.

The dump truck rolls along the bumpy ground, spilling some of its sandy load. The driver toots the horn. I study the truck’s unique paint job—bright green cab with orange around the front fenders, and a black bumper.

Suddenly the truck goes a little off course and crashes into my beach chair.

“Whaaaaaa,” my son cried. “Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma,” he said, gesturing toward his truck.

“OK, here you go baby,” I said as I set the truck beside him.

We live in a time when many people fail to achieve goals and objectives because they are prisoners within their own minds.

Nelson Mandela, the great South African leader, spent 27 years in prison due to a corrupt apartheid legal system. He was physically in prison, but he was mentally free because freedom is a state of mind.

Mandela endured the humiliation of being penned up like an animal with little hope of being freed. His movement was restricted, and his options were few. He could have easily given up and escaped into a world of depression and despair but he did not.

Looking for ways to save money on fuel costs?

Trying to decrease your dependence on gas-guzzling vehicles?

Wilmington-based Cape Fear Breeze, New Hanover County’s public transportation system, which is now reaching out to surrounding counties, wants to help.

The agency has planned its Second Annual Commuter Challenge for Sept. 15-Oct. 17 to encourage employers, employees and the general public in Brunswick New Hanover and Pender counties to take advantage of alternate methods of transportation.